Technical Field
Exemplary aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to an image forming apparatus, such as a copier, a facsimile machine, a printer, or a multi-functional system including a combination thereof.
Related Art
In an image forming apparatus that employs toner as a developer, a supply member supplies a developer bearer with toner, and the toner is then supplied onto an image bearer, developing a latent image formed on the image bearer with the supplied toner. The developed toner image is primarily transferred onto a transfer member opposed to the image bearer, and the toner image is transferred onto a recording medium conveyed by the transfer member.
The developer bearer has seals on the ends of the developer bearer in the direction of axis to prevent toner from leaking out of the ends.
In such a configuration, an external additive separated from toner is likely to accumulate on the ends of the developer bearer, and the accumulated external additive is developed onto the image bearer during a developing process, resulting in the external additive aggregation (which is called as “killfish”) appearing on the image bearer. With an increase in size of the external additive aggregation, the edge of the cleaning blade may be damaged, thereby causing toner to leak out of the damaged part, contaminating a charging roller, resulting in scattering of toner because the surface of the photoconductor corresponding to a contaminated position on the charging roller is not charged while toner continues to be developed.